
Class, 



BookJii 



THE MODEL MAN: 



AN ORATION ON 



WASHINGTON 



IN WHICH 



HE IB COMPARED WITH THE SAGES AND HEROES OF ANTIQUITY; 

TOGETHER WITH AN ANALYSIS OF HIS CHARACTER, 

AND THE ANNUNCIATION OF HIM AS THE 

MODEL MAN. 



T. W. HOIT, 

President of the Saint Louis Literary aaa Philosophical Association. 



THIS CELEBRATED ORATION IS PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY PUBLISHERS AND 
AGENTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE. 



PRICE FIFTY CENTS, 



' 28C2 Locust 






&> CHANGED 



THE MODEL MAN: 



AN ORATION ON 






WASHINGTON 



IN WHICH 

HE IS COMPARED WITH THE SAGES AND HEROES OF ANTIQUITY, 

TOGETHER WITH AN ANALYSIS OF HIS CHARACTER, 

AND THE ANNUNCIATION OF HIM AS THE 

MODEL MAN. 



T. W. HOIT, 

President of the Saint Louis Literary and Philosophical Association. 



THIS CELEBRATED ORATION IS PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY PUBLISHERS 
AND AGENTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE. 



ST. LOUIS, MO 

1866. 



H.^. PulK. Lib, 



.17 
.Hi 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1866, 

By T. W. HOIT, 

In tbe Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and 

for the Eastern District of Missouri. 




[OUPLlCAfE' 



Printed by T. W. Ustick, 79 Locust Street. 



PKEFACE. 



The purpose of the author of the following Oration, 
is to hold up the character of Washington to the gaze 
of mankind as worthy of imitation. This is no 
original idea. Do we not know that the habitual 
contemplation of an admirable object makes a lasting 
and salutary impression on the mind ? To be like 
Washington should be the desire and study of ever}^ 
American, and of every man. He is our ideal man. 
The qualities of his great soul render his fame 
enduring, and constitute the glory of human character ; 
and the habitual contemplation of him, will tend to 
elevate and ennoble mankind. 

There would seem to be little need of cultivating a 
love and veneration of this great man, since his name 
is on every tongue, and his fame is as broad as the 
earth ; but the sun is often obscured by mist, and 
sometimes by dark clouds and tempests. What with 
the mysticism of our theologies, the dark clouds of 
superstition, and the raging storm of partisanism 
and sectional strife, there seems of late somewhat of a 
declension in public as well as individual patriotism, 
and a subsidence of our zeal for justice, freedom and 
equality. There is a worship of strange and false gods 
going on among us. The worship of them is inadequate 
to our wants as freemen. Mammon is one of these. 
and lo, his myriad slaves ! Another is an ideal tyrant. 



4 pkp:face. 

tilled with revenge and ire^ in whose name mental 
shackles are forged, and lo, the mind in chains ! And 
the gods of combat, and of love, and their shrines of 
ambition and of pleasure, see blaze, with the unhallowed 
flames of glory and of lust! 

Turn from them, children of freedom, turn, and 
contemplate the nobler embodiment of human perfect- 
ability in the mild, but august, aspect of our mighty 
Washington. Brother, dost thou lack virtue? behold 
it in him ! Dost thou lack courage ? his character 
affords a supply ! Dost thou lack wisdom ? thou 
mayest learn of him ! 

In the temple of Freedom there is room for all. 
Truth welcomes all of you, my brothers, as votaries at 
her shrine. Are some of you bound in sectarian 
fetters? snap those fetters and be free. Behold in 
Washington the mightiest work of an Almighty hand! 
On you, Americans, I call : torn by faction, blinded, 
some of you, by bigotry, tempted by both spiritual and 
temporal foes, do you not see that your wants are 
greater than these antiquated systems can supply ? 
What hope have we for the stability of republicanism 
resting upon the basis of a superstition whose fun- 
damental principle is despotism ? What hope of 
immortality and glory can we reasonably indulge, if 
our mental eyes are blinded by mysticism, or dimmed 
by the paraphernalia of these theological systems? The 
sinless soul can see its God, by looking through nature 
up to Him. Let us then admire his noblest work, and 
honor the Maker in our admiration. 

Europeans ! Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, 
Sclavonians, Australasians, on you I call. Leave your 
dumb idols and behold the Model ! Your first allegiance 
is due to Him who created and sustains you, not to 
your kings, nor through them. Tour admiration is 



PEEFACE. 5 

due to the most beautiful work of His hand. Your 
veneration is due to His wisdom reflected in the wisest 
and greatest of mankind. Obey this summons and be 
free. iVcting thus, your minds will be free. And. 
freedom from your temporal shackles will thus 
ultimately be attained. 

Englishmen! ye elder brothers of Columbia, bright 
daughter of Freedom, who has been the guardian angel 
of your dreams for a thousand years, behold her 
Model Son ! copy him. Advance one step further and 
be free. Frenchmen ! have you forgotten the declara- 
tion of your great warrior after the battle of Rivoli, that 
''7ione hut REPUBLICAN troops could have fought with 
such valor ?^^ The genius of your country is republican 
still ; our Model is for you. Germans ! come to the 
shrine of Freedom, come. Let your thronging millions 
gladden these Western plains with anthems of freedom. 
Behold this Model ! copy it and be true men. JNors- 
men, your sturdy frames and iron sinews are strong 
for the ultimate right. Look hither, to the westward, 
and behold the moral Colossus who overshadows your 
model king. Australians, vassals of our former foe, do 
ye already tire under the incubus of Albion ? Follow 
our example, behold our Model and copy it, until 
Freedom shall vouchsafe to you a model of your own. 

Washington is the embodiment of a new dispensa- 
tion, wherein the ultimate of human progress is 
preflgured, and the shining qualities of virtue, wisdom 
and heroism, sagacity, moderation and energy, are 
found just equipoise, and in which the measure of 
faith, and the intensity of hope, are bounded and 
regulated by probability, and veneration is justified by 
the (luality as well as the magnitude of that which is 
to be revered. This is the character which challeno-es 
the admiration of human reason, and is not repugnant 



6 PKEFACE. 

to it. So far, then, it is new at least, for the old ideals 
confounded reason and denied the just prerogative of 
the mind, which makes it the arbiter of its own destiny, 
bv its assertion of the right of private judgment. 

There is a latent, though powerful principle of the 
human mind, which is summoned and aroused at this 
ideal Washington, when contemplated as the Model 
Man. This principle results from the confluence, in 
the mind, of veneration, love, gratitude, patriotism, 
and admiration, and cannot be repressed by all the 
force of dogmatic theology, nor diverted permanently 
into foreign channels. It is the spontaneous and 
legitimate response of mankind to the noblest of infinite 
creations, and to suppress it would be to contempt- 
uously mock at the mandate of Omnipotence. Is 
there no meaning in the character of Washington ? 
Is there no signiticance in such an exhibition of Divine 
Wisdom ? If a sparrow falls not to the ground without 
His notice, how can a Washington be seen but as a 
glorious exhibition of Eternal Wisdom and Powder. 
Surely, he must be the Example for man to copy, 
the necessity for which existed in the lack of faith in 
earlier examples, and their inapplicability to man's 
wants on account of his inability to follow in their 
footsteps. Intidelity to other ideals may and does 
exist, but infidelity to the character and principles of 
W^ashington, is to be false to justice, truth and human 
equality. The World expects Americans to be like 
Washington. 

If the comparisons instituted in this Oration, seem 
to be invidious, let it be remembered that the object in 
making them is not to eulogize the sages and heroes of 
antiquity, but to show their inferiority to Washington. 
This could only be done by pointing out their defects, 
errors and misfortunes. The task of doing justice to 



PEEFACE. / 

their virtues, I leave mainly to others, who have 
perhaps amply performed that i^leasing duty already. 
As for the vices, errors and misfortunes of Washington, 
I aver he had none, whilst the task of adequately extoll- 
ing his virtues is so great, that whatever of eulogy, or 
praise, or attempted hyperbole the past or the present 
may employ, that task must remain unperformed, be- 
cause, to do justice to the character of Washington, he 
must be comprehended and appreciated, and to do this, 
we must be like him, which we may at most hope to 
be. His character, though real, seems ideal, and is so 
to us, because, though conceivable it is not attainable, 
and its reality cannot be arrived at by ocular demon- 
stration. To approximate the character of Washington, 
therefore, is all that can reasonably be hoped for, and 
this is the proper development of man. It is the just 
development of the whole man. 

I offer no apology for pointing out Washington as 
the Model Man. Our analysis of his character, shows 
that, on the whole, what is true of him, is true of no 
other man of ancient or modern times. His character 
as a human being challenges my entire admiration, and 
as an evidence of my sincerity in confidently commend- 
ing the world to him, I would say to my children, as the 
last, best advice I would give them, study his character 
well and endeavor to be like Washington. 



WASHINGTON 

AND THE HEROES OF ANTiaUITY 



It is uot becoming in us to say common things of the 
character of Washington. He is the principal figure in the 
picture of our time. Whatever of grandeur belongs to our 
country, it is only accessory in this picture. This broad 
continent, whose states are empires, whose plains are bound- 
less, whose mountains overtop the clouds, whose far reaching 
rivers, and awful inland oceans, that roll, not to waft plenty 
from favored to deficient climes, but to combine variety and 
beauty with magnificence, and strike the mind with admiration 
and wonder, and whose cataracts resound the eternal anthem 
of freedom, form but the perspective which nature had drawn, 
as fitting scenery to adorn this stage of action, whereon is to 
be enacted the world's drama, in which we behold, conspicuous, 
this Great Actor, whose exploits command the world's applause. 
We behold the fadeless wreath of laurel placed upon his brow, 
to crown with immortal honor his actions, which realize Ihe 
poetic idea of those Grecian and Trojan Heroes, whose allies 
were the immortal gods, by whose aid they were invincible. 
That which makes his exploits greater than theirs, is to be 
estimated by the difference between the deities of mythology 
and our God. His was a charmed life, while they were exposed 
to the vicissitudes of common mortals. Behold divine Petrocles 



10 WASHINGTON 

fall by the hand of Hector; Achilles rifled of his lawful spoils 
of beauty, the loved Chryseis, and Ulysses and his companions 
subjected to the vicissitudes of war, and 

"Wandering still from coast to coast, 
And all his vessels, all his people lost." 

Lo ! Hector, the Trojan, favorite of the gods, torn by the fate 
of war from the fair Andromache and his infant son Astyanax; 
see him slain by the fierce Achilles, his godlike form prone in 
the dust, and at the chariot of the victor, dragged around the 
walls of Troy. And Achilles himself slain by the hand of 
Paris. This was the fate of the Grecian and Trojan Heroes, 
but such is not the fate of Washington. He fought to avenge 
uo private wrong, but to uphold the liberties of his country, 
and for the enfranchisement of a world. He was left to uo 
chances betwixt contending deities, nor governed by their 
caprices, nor flattered by their complacency, nor rewarded by 
their bounty. His was a mightier protection, his a surer and 
a higher destiny, and his is a more ample reward. His is a 
reward equivalent to his services, and his merits, and commen- 
surate with the most exemplary virtue, the loftiest heroism, and 
the profoundest wisdom. The Greeks and Trojans live in the 
songs of Homer and the poets, but Washington lives in the 
heart of the World. I only thus mention them with him to 
show the superiority of his endowments, the greater justice of 
his cause, and particularly to recognize the truer divinity that 
shaped his ends, and is still directing the course of those 
fortunes, which are the common heritage of freedom. The 
biography of Washington is being written. "He still lives." 
His life is the round of the eternal ages, and as time rolls on, 
each day, each year, each century will enhance his fame. But 
it is not too soon even now, to assert his superiority over all 
other men of either ancient or modern times, for his opportu- 
nities and his splendid success, resulting from an almost 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 11 

perfectly balanced mind, which makes tlie true man, already 
.bespeak for him the highest place on the roll of fame. If we 
interrogate the world upon the subject, we shall find Washing- 
ton already the occupant of the minds of men, and there are 
few who will venture to deny him the place which he occupies 
by almost universal acclamation. There have lived a few men 
whom to compare with "Washington w^ere not irreverence. 
But ws shall find that though some warriors commanded 
greater armies, few have combined equal prudence and valor, 
and none have so united moderation with success. Among 
statesmen and rulers he stands without a rival, in the simplicity 
of virtue, in the majesty of wisdom, and in the perfection of 
his example. As a man he is a model which it is safe to copy, 
and if an overruling Providence presides over the aifairs of 
men for their good, and is to be seen in outward manifestations, 
it would seem designed that by emulation of him men should 
be godlike. 

HIS MORAL POWER. 

It was the moral power of Washington, that bore him up 
against those waves of adversity that for a while overwhelmed 
his country. It was his moral power that struck with admira- 
tion the generous minds of other lands, and enlisted them 
under the banner of freedom, at that critical period of the 
revolution when the brave faltered and success was doubtful. 
It was his moral power that finally gave success to our arms, 
and by the magic of transmutation made the rebel the hero, 
the colonies states, and their federation the American Republic. 
By this power he withstood those temptations that ever sur- 
round the great, and so a crown was a bauble in bis eyes, to 
be discarded as beneath the dignity of his nobler mind ; as 
altogether too common a thing, and so he exhibits the anomaly 
of a man so great as to discard a thing so mean. His moral 
power gave the world confidence in our supposed experiment 
of self government, and has made it, so far, successful. Not 



12 WASHINGTON 

that there have not been others who have played their part, 
and contributed to our success, and of whom we may speak, 
and of their characters and deeds, after we have exhausted the 
annals of the w^orld in search of a man who can vie in true 
greatness and moral power with our ow^n immortal Washington. 
But at the same time it is to be considered how far his character 
and example might have influenced even them, and whether 
success was probable or possible without the aid of his moral 
power. 

HIS GREATNESS. 

Certain it is that Washington is not greatest as a warrior? 
but as a man. I mean not as compared with others, but him- 
self; for while he has not been excelled in heroism, he has not 
been equaled in individual excellence. So, while we institute 
comparisons between him and the great commanders of ihe 
world, it is more with the expectation of showing his superiority 
in those combined elements which secure ultimate success, than 
with the hope of finding, in the department of arms, a character 
the nearest parallel to his. The character of Cromwell illus- 
trates this. Cromwell is the Englishman who is most like 
Washington, because he also is not greatest as a warrior, and 
because he is like him in success. 

It is fortunate for the cause of peace and humanity that 
this is true. It is fortunate that the character of Washington, 
w^hich occupies the highest jdace in the estimation of mankind, 
is not to be judged by those sanguinary qualities w^hich are, in 
diftereut degrees, the common elements of human nature, but 
rather by those higher endowments of mind which hold in 
subjection the ruder passions of ambition, pride and vain glory, 
and submit them to the test and arbitrament of reason. Herein 
consists the true greatness of Washington. It is not a perfect 
equilibrium of the faculties, but that near approximation to it, 
which, recognizing the economy of nature in the presence of all 
the human faculties, shows a predominance of intellectuality 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 13 

and moral power over those grosser functions which prompt 
mankind to feats in arms. Wherever this predominance of 
moral power is wanting, there we find a badly balanced mind, 
and it is sure to be displayed in individual action. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 

We may give to Alexander the general praise of universal 
geniur, and empire, and descending to the incidental glories of 
such achievements as the battles of the Granicus. of Issus and 
Arbela, and the siege of Tyre; his magnanimity towards the 
mother, wife and daughters of Darius, when they were his 
captives, and found his camp a sacred asylum for their virtue; 
and his generosity to king Porus, in restoring to him his 
kingdom ; we may accord to him the possession of the soul 
of chivalry, the fire of ambition, the love of glory, and the 
truthfulness of friendship, when friendship subserved his pur- 
poses, and was not in the way of his ambition. But did he 
not murder Clitus, in a debauch, for praising Philip, his 
father? Did he not treacherously assassinate the venerable 
and heroic Parmineo, the friend of Aristotle, his preceptor, to 
escape the consequences of having tortured and murdered his 
son Philotus upon mere suspicion ? Did he not torture and 
murder Calisthenes? Did he not, at the suggestion of a cour- 
tesan, play the incendiary by setting fire to the palace of Darius 
with his own hands? And indeed, were not his military 
achievements as much the result of the weakness and imbecility 
of those he conquered as of his own efibrts ? What was he, in 
fact, but a great public murderer, plunderer and robber ? And 
did he not die in youth, and a debauchee? What heroism, 
what magn mimity, what military genius, can atone for this? 
He must have derived his ideas of morality from his father, 
Philip, who discarded Olymphia, the mother of Alexander, and 
his own proper wife, not for her ijhjsical inability to jJrovide him 
with a sou and worthy successor, who existed in the person of 



14 WASHINGTON 

Alexander himself, but for the enrapturing charms of the more 
youthful Cleopatra. 

Here then we nat,u rally glide into a comparison, as by 
accident, to illustrate a principle, wherein the great Alexander 
must occupy a niche in the temple of fame how very far beneath 
the pedestal on which stands the father of our country ! And 
more forcibly to show the effects of the moral power of these 
two great men upon the empires they established, and upon 
the world, let us see what cause they were severally engaged 
in, and what followed when they left the stage of action. 

The empire of Alexander, a consolidated despotism, vast as 
it was, possesped no cohesive power of perpetuation, and scat- 
tered like a rope of sand. He did not foster, nor did his 
example encourage in his cotemporaries and successors, a 
spirit of emulation, which would incite them to become great 
rulers. He could bear no rival. He was jealous even of the 
fame of his own father, and murdered the man who had 
rescued him from death, and who was his best friend, for 
daring to do justice to the fame of Philip. The cause he was 
enframed in was that of his own selfishness. His incentive to 
action was his inordinate ambition, to satisfy which, even the 
spoils of the East and the subjugation of the world were 
inadequate. He claimed immortality, and slew those who 
were too sincere to pa}' him divine honors. His fame, there- 
fore, has more of quaudtt/ than quality about it. 

HE IS CONTRASrED WITH WASHINGTON. 

On the other hand, Washington engaged in an unequal 
contest to rescue from the grasp of oppression the then infant 
colonies of America. It is not probable that, at that time, 
the splendid vision of the future of these United States had 
unveiled itself even to the mo 4 hopeful mind. The redress 
of wrongs then existing, and possible independence of the 
mother country, was about all that was looked for. "Washing- 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. J 5 

ton had no hope of spoils ; he had no rich and populous cities 
to terapt him to plunder; he had no victorious legions who for 
an age had whetted their invincible swords against Roman or 
Persian shields, but a sparsely populated country, with a few 
small cities and villager which it was his duty to protect, and 
an army of rural peasantry unskilled in war, who had gathered 
at their country's call, and stood ready for those manipulations 
of the science of war which alone could quality them for success. 
To join himself to the fortunes of the coming struggle, he must 
turn traitor to his king, and if not successful, sacrifice an hon- 
orable name for the opprobrium of a rebel, and perhaps come 
to a traitor's doom. Besides, look at the power that would 
oppose him : a nation whose diplomacy and arms had been the 
envy and terror of Europe and Asia for six hundred years; 
whose navies rode the oceans in triumph, and whose traffickers, 
adventurers and emissaries had gathered into the lap of Bri- 
tannia the garnered wealth of the East, and subjected the 
wilds of America to the uncontrolled range of the British 
Jion ; thus, in effect, monopolizing the accumulated wealth of 
antiquity, and appropriating, in the acquisitions of Columbus, 
these splendid domains, which were fated to become the 
theatre and focus of a higher civilization, and holding the 
supremacy of commerce, becume the arbiter in deciding 
the political destinies of the world. 

Washington's inspiration. 
For a man with such slender resources at his command, 
and so little inducement in the prospect of success, to assume 
the position of leader in a rebellion against the then colossal 
power of England, was an act wherein rashness and heroism 
seemed blended, and none but a mind indued with the spirit 
of prophecy could have prompted to such action the heart and 
arm of a hero. 



10 WASHINGTON 

HIS WISDOM. 

Passing over those incidents of the conflict which are the 
common topics of history, we are next to consider Washington, 
when complete success had crowned him as a commander, 
taking the helm of state. Disdaining proflfered royalty, he 
becomes the servant of the people, and as the first popular 
magistrate of the American Republic, co-operating with 
t'ranklin, Jefferson, Payne, and Adams, and the other sages 
and patriots of his time, (himself the chief among them, by 
common acclamation,) proceeds to put in motion this mighty 
phenomenon of government, wherein the people rule by 
RIGHT DIVINE. His was tlic model administration of this 
Republic. Ilis example in office, and on leaving it, refusing 
all remuneration for his services, satisfied with honor and 
glory, rather than the avails of avarice ; the stable basis upou 
which he established the precedents of our democratic admin- 
istrative function ; his knowledge of national and international 
law, of state and federal sovereignty, of the relative powers 
and prerogatives of the several departments of the government 
under the constitution, (never forgetting that the people are the 
source of all power,) are evidences of his elevated and disinter- 
ested patriotism, and of his superiority as a ruler. His advice 
to his countrymen, when he bid them farewell, was the advice 
of a father to his children, and can never be contemplated 
without deep emotion. If his advice were listened to and 
obeyed, the American Republic would be perpetual. 

RESULTS OF HIS CAREER. 

Of the results of the career of Washington, and his moral 
influence on his country and the world, it is not fitting to 
speak in comparison with those of Alexander. No parallel 
can be drawn here, as there is no analogy. But upon those 
results, incomparable as they are, it is proper to dilate, 
briefly, in order to establish a criterion by which to judge 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 17 

of others, who are supposed to have some claim to a similar 
influence. 

Washington's retirement and death. 

Sixty-nine years have elapsed since Washington retired 
from the service of his country. That event brought tears 
to the eyes of the sages and heroes who surrounded him, and 
sadness and gloom over the whole country. At his death, two 
3'ears later, a wail of lamentation rose to heaven from every 
mountain and valley and plain of this broad land, and funereal 
honors were done him in every city, village, town and hamlet 
of his redeemed country. The sorrow of his own countrymen 
was heartfelt and sincere, and many a noble soul in Europe 
paid the homage of tears to the manes of him who had extorted 
their admiration by his deeds, and their love and veneration 
by his godlike example. His departure filled the world with 
gloom, as though the sun had set, for his fame had gone 
abroad over the world wherever the flag of his country floated, 
and the children of Confucius, and Osiris, of Zoroaster and 
Mahomet, were touched in unison at the grief of the children 
of Washington ! 

THE NEW ERA. 

Since that event, we behold the most astonishing changes 
in the aflairs of the world and of this Republic. The morning 
sun of freedom, advancing toward the meridian, has warmed 
into life the before slumbering but latent energies of the 
human mind, and free thought and inventive skill have 
invaded the domain of the hitherto unknown, and brought 
from thence the spoils of industry and the glittering gems 
of intellect, as a grateful tribute due to the genius of liberty. 
While Franklin had evoked the spirit of the skies to inaugu- 
rate the dominion of freedom, Fulton bid the spirit of the 
waters speed the gliding train of commerce over land and sea, 
2 



18 WASHINGTOM 

and Morse, with magic band, has bound in the eternal spell of 
omnipresence the thoughts of men, and made our name im- 
mortal. Again, we invade the realm of Xeptune to establish 
a highway upon which thought shall travel, and now we hold 
a truce with the sovereign of the deep, till he reluctantly 
yields to freedom the right of way across the bottom of the 
Atlantic. 

PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Look at our progress in invention ; our arms, our printing 
presses, our locomotives and implements of agriculture, and 
various appliances of mechanism to the arts of civilization and 
the pursuits of domestic life, carried over the oceans in our 
sbips to supply foreign lands. Look at their use here, and Ihe 
result our supremacy in commerce. Look at our widening 
domain, magnified by honorable terms of accession, by pur- 
chase, by treaty, and b}' unwilling conquest. See a thousand 
cities rising upon it, and the world flocking to our shores, 
emulous to illustrate the principles and obey the precepts of 
Washington. See, even the tomb of Washington an object 
of profound regard ; the Mecca of the pilgrims of freedom, 
watched over by the daughters of Columbia, as the tomb of 
Jesus was watched over by the daughters of Palestine ; and 
see ! the urst scholars and orators of the Republic cover the 
land with eulogies to adorn his tomb ! Is he not immortal ? 
and if he be not a god, is it for lack of the veneration paid to 
a god? Witness the silent reverence of mankind at the 
mention of his name. Among men there is no name so 
sacred, except the name of God himself We even see men 
scofi' at religion, reject revelation and everything else sacred, 
but they tremble at the name of Washington as though it 
were the sign of omnipotence, and they dare not pass it. 
Truly, our sectaries have but a slender hold on the minds 
of men, compared with this ! 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 19 

These are the results that follow the career of Washington. 
Such 19 he, and such the grandeur of his fame. Need we go 
back to inquire if he be equal to Alexander? Let us rather 
hold up the laurels of a Xenophon, a Xerxes, a Pericles, a 
Numa, a Hannibal, a Scipio, a Fabius, an Attila, a Csesar, 
an Alfred, a Frederick and Peter the Great, a Charles of 
Sweden, a Charlemagne and a Xapoleon, and see them wither 
beneath the noonday glories of the fame of Washington ! 

XENOPHON. 

I mention Xenophon, the Athenian, first, because he was 
not only a great commander, but an historian, a philosopher 
and sage, combining in himself the elements of real greatness; 
and «:reat he was, thouo-h not faultless. He was the friend and 
disciple of Socrates, but, against the earnest entreaties of his 
preceptor, he listened to the claims of friendship, and the 
promptings of ambition, and was induced by Proxenus to 
join the expedition of Gyrus against his brother Artaxerxes, 
which proved disastrous, and the result was that after their 
total defeat in the battle of Cunaxa, by the army of Artaxerxes, 
Xenophon with ten thousand Greeks was compelled to flee 
six hundred leagues, and this flight, inglorious as it was, is 
called the retreat of Xenophon. For his skill in conducting 
this retreat, which is the most notable in ancient history, he 
has justly received all due praise; but had he been less ambi- 
tious, or had he listened to the wise counsel of Socrates, he 
would have escaped the glory and the shame of the expedition, 
and saved himself from the consequent disgrace of his subse- 
quent public banishment from Athens. And what compensa. 
tion had he for his glorious deeds in the service of Agesilaus, 
the Spartan king in Asia, or even for his part in the celebrated 
battle of Coronea, when his banishment took place afterwards, 
and since he died in exile? 



20 WASHINGTON 

XERXES. 
What glory had Xerxes, the Persian king, in his army of 
more than five millions of human beings, when he could be 
defied at Tliermopylse by a band of three hundred heroic 
Spartans under Leouidas, or what substantial fortunes, or 
extent of dominion, could compensate for his debaucheries, 
his pride and insolence, which resulted in his assassination? 
He might bore a tunnel through Mount Athos, and see his 
fleet sail through it ; he could throw chains into the ocean, to 
deride old Neptune for destroying his bridge of boats, and lash 
the waves with a whip for their seeming contempt of his ego- 
tism, but he has failed to satisfy the world of his title to true 
fame. Who would commit so great an outrage as to mention 
the name of Xerxes as the peer of Washington? 

PERICLES. 

Pericles, a name, tlie synonym of ancient Grecian civic and 
military renown, in statesmanship, oratory, military astuteness 
and executive dignity unrivaled, illustrates the genius of an age 
without its wisdom, and a noble race without its virtue. He 
lessened the power of the Areophegus to enhance his own. 
At the mention of the name of Aspasia, tlie name of Pericles 
loses its lustre, and its greatness is transformed from a moun- 
tain of gold to a mountain of stone, which may indeed exist 
through interminable ages, and defy the elements of destruc- 
tion, but without the celestial halo of moral beauty, or the 
resplendent rays of virtue to adorn its cloud capt summit. 

NUMA. 

Xuma could not, like Washington, refuse a crown, and 
accepted it, whether willingly or with reluctance, and if he 
calmed the ferocity of the primitive Eomans, he was the 
patron of caste, and as the exemplar of regal beneficence 
became the model, par excellence, of monarchical toleration, 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 21 

and bj rendering monarchy plausible, was the more dangerous 
and formidable foe to human equality. He was, like the 
modern English Constitution, so fascinating an apologist of 
monarchy as to become the most insidious and dangerous 
enemy of human freedom. 

HANNIBAL. 

Of Hannibal, the Carthagenian, it may be acknowledged, 
that his military exploits equal those of any other general, 
notwithstanding his final defeat, his misfortunes and his 
suicide. His early victories in Spain ; his simultaneous march- 
ing of three great armies into Africa, Spain and Italy, and his 
triumph at Caniuie, are models of military strategy, bravery 
and success, which were the study of Napoleon, and it required 
the highest deliberation of the Roman Senate, assisted by the 
wise counsel of their ablest generals, to circumvent him, and 
by carr\'ing the war into Africa, transfer the seat of war, and 
drive Hannibal from the gates of Rome. It was not to be 
expected that the genius of one man could outweigh the solid 
wisdom of the Roman Senate, touching war and conquest, and 
overreach the conceptions of a Scipio by superior militarj^ 
sagacity, and so the battle of Zama was fought, the Romans 
triumphed, and the military career of Hannibal was ended. 
His name is illustrious as a warrior, though his career was 
transitory, and his fall signal as that of Carthage itself. 

THE SCIPIOS. 

As for the Scipios, whether we prefer him who conquered 
Hannibal, or him who burned Carthage, the elder or the 
younger Africanus, let it not be forgotten that the former 
suffered by the ingratitude of his country, and died in obscu- 
rity, and the latter, as the instrument of Roman jealousy- and 
revenge, destroyed with vandal fury the commercial metropolis 
of the world, weeping prophetic tears at the anticipation that a 



22 WASHINGTON 

like calamity would befall his own native city at a future age, 
and that he died by violence, being strangled in his bed. 
They were amongst the wisest counselors and most successful 
generals Rome ever produced, and posterity has paid the debt 
which their contemporaries owed to their fame, but it is to be 
considered, whether their opportunities, or their exploits, even 
if blest with the approbation of their country, could by any 
means have made them the equals of Washington. 

FABIUS. 

Some have compared Fabius to Washington in prudei.ce, 
or rather, precaution. Tliey may have resembled each other 
in that respect, but in that only, and for which Fabius was 
accused of cowardice, but Washington was praised as wise. 
It was the time and manner of their precaution that made all 
the diiference. 

AURELIAN. 

Aurelian, the very prince of austerity, violence and cruelty, 
whose valor could make Rome glorious, while his severity 
rendered himself infamous, expiated the wrongs he had in- 
flicted upon others through that vengeance they had learned 
of himself, and his assassination, by his own soldiers, proved 
that they loved liberty and hated despotism, and that they 
hated slavery more than they loved military renown or Roman 
grandeur. His was the first diadem of Rome, but it was 
tarnished by his cruelties. He could triumpli over Zenobia, 
the Iberian queen, though she commanded an army of seven 
hundred thousand men, but he could not triumph over his 
own passions, and therefore he became the victim of revenge. 

MILTIADES. 

Miltiades, the glorious hero of Marathon, and master of the 
Thracian Chersonesus, was found guilt}' of treason and con- 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 28 

demned to death for raising the siege of Paros. He became 
suddenly panic-stricken and overawed by the Persian power 
which he had before trampled upon and defied ; as though his 
mind fluctuated betwixt ambition and fear, and his vacillation 
was mistaken for treachery, and punished as crime, when it 
was a consequence merely of his constitutional frailties, lie 
died in prison, and his corpse was ransomed by his son, to save 
him from worse than a plebeian burial. 

ATTILA. 

Shall we mention the name of Attila, the fierce Hun, " the 
scourge of God," as worthy of our regard? Roman malice 
and detraction must have damaged this great favorite of his 
people, who gashed their faces with knives and shrieked in 
agony when he died. They buried him in a triple coflin of 
gold and silver and iron, and turning the river from its channel, 
buried him there, that the returning waves might shield from 
desecration his precious dust, and then slew those who buried 
him, that his sacred place of rest should be forever hidden 
from the knowledge of men. His was the fierce spirit of 
vengeance, sent by the Almighty to do His bidding, whom 
Leo supplicated to save Pome, and ransomed hor with his 
tears, as before she had been ransomed from the iron grasp 
of an Alaric, with the ill-gotten spoils of ecclesiastical plunder. 
This surely is the antipode of the spirit of Washington, whose 
milder aspect is the symbol of the celestial attribute of love. 
And when we consider the career of the warlike Hun, and the 
desolation that followed in his train, we are forced to acknowl- 
edge that though the Almighty is a God of love, he is a God 
of vengeance too. And shall we say that this Attila, who so 
commanded the homage of his people, whose soul was theirs, 
and whose inspiration rendered them invincible, does not, at 
least in this, as well as in the homage paid him, resemble 
Washington ? There is many a Christian hero among the 



24 WASHINGTON 

warlike conservators of our modern civilization who resembles 
Washington less, and who is not so godlike as he. His name 
must have been aspersed, for unmitigated vice could never 
have so fascinated his people, nor wickedness so entirely com- 
mand their veneration. 

JULIUS C^SAK. 

But of Csesar, the great master of the world when Rome 
was its mistress, what shall we say of him, in this comparison ? 
If greatness of character were not a quality, as well as a thing 
of magnitude, it is probable that the name of Julius Ceesar 
would stand by the side of Washington's on the roll of fame ; 
but as the one is only great, while the other is good as well as 
great, we take it that our Model Man is greatest as well as 
best; because, in morals, goodness magnifies greatness, and 
makes it more obvious. We can see bright objects farthest, 
and the lustre that adorns the name of Washington makes 
him the more obvious. We can see bright objects farthest, 
and the lustre that adorns the name of Washington in his 
ex ilted sphere, makes him the pole-star of the present and 
the future ; ever obvious, ever th3 same, ever great, though 
his distance from other known and familiar objects prevents 
his being measured, so that his magnitude and distance, if 
not bej'ond imagination, are at least beyond demonstration. 
Julius C«sar is the Orion of the constellations, whose grandeur 
and magnificence astonish the beholder; but he rises in March 
and sets in June ; while Washington, like the great luminary, 
that is not the pole, but so near as to guide to it, shines 
throughout the year of eternity. To make the figure perfect, 
it is necessary to add, that the pole itself is infinite perfection. 

CHARLEMAGNE. 

If it is not too great a transition to stoop from these high 
historical contemplations, let us now descend to the eighth 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 25 

centurj- of the Christian era, to touch briefly upon the char- 
acter of Charleniigne. Though the founder of a dynasty 
wliich lasted near five hundred years, he was so ignorant that 
he could not even write his own name and yet he is chiimed 
as the patron and restorer of learning. This seeras paradoxical, 
but it is not more ^o than his reputed kindness and humanity, 
when attempted to be justified with his cruelty to the Saxons, 
of whom he butchered four thousand deliberately, and in cold 
blood, in a single day. But due allowance will, of course, be 
made for this sanguinary quality in him, Avhen it is remem- 
bered that he did this to establish Christianity. AVhat indeed 
was the slaughter of a few thousand rebels for the sake of 
establishing the celestial dominion of the Prince of Peace? 
He ravaged their country with fire and sword, and at last 
compelled their submission to Christianity. Of course he was 
not exactly like Washington, though he resembled him so far 
that, whereas Charlemagne established Christianity and his 
own dominion, Washington established universal toleration 
and the dominion of freedom. 

ALFRED THE GREAT. 

Alfred the Great, of England, is one of the names which it 
is proper to mention in this comparison, and it follows next in 
order of time. 

Although, as we have said, Cromwell is the Englishman 
who most resembles Washington, still there is a certain aris- 
tocratical influence forever exerted in England in favor of 
monarchy, and by which, for paucity of numbers in individual 
greatness among their rulers, occasioned by the overwhelming 
power of their oligarchies, the name of Alfred is magnified, 
and also, from political motives with the legitimists, it has 
gain 3d precedence in greatness over that of Cromwell. The 
latter being a plebeian king, and filling the hiatus in the rule 
of legitimate royalty occasioned by the execution of Charles 



26 WASHINGTON 

the iirst; being, in a manner, a rebel and usurper, has ever 
since been an object of royal hatred, and hence it has followed, 
that as they could not deny the greatness of Cromwell, it has 
been necessary to magnify that of Alfred. He is therefore 
extolled for acts not his own, and his greatness is exaggerated 
to make him a successful competitor for greatness with the 
greater Cromwell. Ho is represented as an eminent law-giver, 
when in truth most of the laws he promulgated were framed 
by Ina, his predecessor, or borrowed from the Trojan and 
Grecian codes. These laws, fifty-two in number, form the 
basis, it is true, of English jurisprudence ; but we are only to 
give Alfred credit for that which is his ow^n, not for appropri- 
ating to his own use and convenience the ideas of others, 
which with English monarchists may indeed seem a virtue 
but we will none of it. 

Alfred fought fifty-six battles to conquer a peace, because 
he loved peace better than war. The suggestion seems immi- 
nent that he must have gotten bravely over his peace loving 
propensities before his wars were ended. And there may be 
some just and proper appreciation of his perseverance, when 
it is known that he was overpowered, conquered and driven 
into obscurity by the Danes, who at that time infested England, 
and but for the success in battle of the earl Odun, he could 
never have been induced to resume his royal prerogative. 
Here Alfred's greatness, as a king, depended upon Odun. 
It is mentioned as one of his exploits, for which he received 
much praise, that in the character of an harper he entered the 
camp of the enemy as a spy, and by that means gained some 
success. How would it look in Washington's military career 
if we should see him assume the character of a mountebank 
and a spy to gain success? There is a majesty, a sincerity, a 
dignity about the character of Washington, which forbids the 
idea of his being capable of such low cunning and deception. 
I do not say that Alfred is destitute of character as one of the 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 27 

great, but that his greahicss has been magnified, and he has 
no right to stand betwixt Cromwell and the sun, because his 
shadow is too small to obscure him, much less is he the equal 
of Washington. 

CROMWELL. 

But can it be claimed that Cromwell himself is the equal 
of Washington? Did he possess the even balance of mind; 
the equilibrium of the moral, intellectual and physical powers 
so eminently constituting the manly status of our Model Man ? 
Are there not incidents in his life which disclose the predomi- 
nance of physical power over moral and even intellectual 
power in this great man ? Was he not severe beyond the 
exigencies of the times in which he lived? Did he aim 
sufficiently high to match his impelling force? These are 
questions which I will not presume to answer, but leave for 
solution by those who will hereafter decide with unbiased 
Judgment, when the muse of history is not longer confronted 
by the spirit of mammon, nor shocked by the apprehension 
that liberty may be turned into license. 

In his age and position, Cromwell surely represented the 
genius and power of a race of men in whose hands then rested 
the fate of human freedom. The conservative minds of his 
nation, even to this day, l)}' virtue of his audacity and their 
own innate sense of justice and true perception of individual 
right, hold in check the power of the mob, the oligarchy and 
the throne. The Democracy of England is the genius of her 
Cromwell piercing through the mask of a superficial loyalty, 
and asserting, in defiance of royal or aristocratic prerogative, 
the rights of man. But with Cromwell did not end that 
hideous system of inequality which holds the many subject to 
the few; their laws of entail and primogeniture (relics of 
feudal barbarism) still remain. These must either be worn 
away by reformatory processes, or if delayed too long, be 



28 WASHINGTON 

swept to oblivion by tlie angiy wave of political revolution. 
Happy would it be for England, if the mind that rules her 
were so pervaded by tlie spirit of our advancing civilization as 
to discard, in time, those principles of injustice and wrong 
which sap the foundations of a political system founded in 
constitutional freedom. Here is the great antagonism that 
threatens the overthrow of her political liberties. It is the 
cause of all those social agitations which have shaken the 
British empire to its foundations, and constitutes and per- 
petuates an irrepressible contlict between popular liberty and 
diabolical despotism. 

Cromwell a-'ose on the tide of English civilization, and 
until the subsidence of that tide he occupies the crest of its 
topmost wave. A Shakspeare, a Bacon, a Milton, a jSTewton, 
may grace the temple of the ideal, but the colossal fovni of a 
Cromwell fills the highest place in the sphere of action, and 
brightens the glory and enhances the fame of England. 

CHARLES OF SWEDEN. 

Nine hundred years after Alfred, history records two illus- 
trious names which should be more than mentioned, especially 
as one of them founded a mighty empire; for in this he was 
like Washington. These are the names of Charles of Sweden, 
who fought sixty pitched battles and was then killed by a 
cannon ball, and Peter the Great of Russia, whose dynasty 
still exists, as the great absolute antagonism of our republican 
form of gov^ernment. These are great in quantity, and, it must 
be confessed, to a certain degree, good in quality also. Living 
contemporaneously, it is almost impossible to mention one 
without the other, though in respect to the consequences 
which resulted from their lives, it would be safe to select the 
character of Peter the Great as most suitable to compare with 
that of the founder of our government. And'3-et the heroism 
and success of Charles the twelfth, and that superiority of soul 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY 29 

that scorned the bauble of a crown, and arose above the allure- 
ments of common greatness to the dignity of true manhood, 
challenge the admiration of the world, and seal his name with 
the impress of immortality. ■ . 

PETER THE GREAT. 

And of Peter the Great and his stupendous plans of empire; 
plans which were conceived in prophetic reverie, and executed 
with godlike energy, with an energy inherent in a noble race 
of rulers, who derived their moral power from this illustrious 
head, and seemed, by inspiration, the means adapted to the 
end for carrying out the grand conceptions of the master 
mind ; of these it is just and proper briefly to speak with that 
respect which the sublimity and the grandeur of the subject 
inspire. Indeed, aside from the peculiar forms of government 
which they established, and the political principles involved 
therein, there is more similarity between the characters of 
Washington and the Russian tzar than often occurs among 
those so great. The Russian was virtuous and wise ; so was 
the American. Pie had industry and perseverance ; so had 
Washington. He was successful ; so was Washington. He 
was the model man and the model ruler ot his nation ; so 
was Washington. The systems and governments they estab- 
lished, though political antipodes, are both successful and still 
exist. They established two mighty empires, each of which 
goes on increasing in extent, population and improvement. 
Each of the men is called, and is the father of his country, 
and they are alike objects of just veneration. But in the 
estimation of mankind, since human nature is so constituted 
as to love freedom, Washington is the best model, and would 
be preferred, even if he did not excel Peter the Great in the 
original constituent elements of human character. They may 
yet be judged' adversely, if in the future liberty should lose its 
charm, by degenerating into mere license^ and when patriotism 



30 WASHINGTON 

is but a name, and freedom a mask for oppression. But while 
men love liberty, and are worthy of it by virtue of their intel_ 
ligence, and preserve it by the power of their wisdom, they will 
esteem Washington as much higher than Peter the Great, as 
they esteem democracy higher than monarchy. 

y^ NAPOLEON. 

It now remains to us to compare our model man with 
Kapoleon Buonaparte. This is difficult because we find in 
Napoleon those prominent qualities which we have already 
described in others. He was a military and political eclectic. 
In him we have the Alexander of our own age. In ambition 
he was like Alexander, and not like Washington. Alexander 
was one of the models which he studied, and although profuse 
of originality, and possessed of abundant resources of his own, 
he appears to have copied somewiiat from the great masters of 
his art, I would not call him a military plagiarist, but his 
crossing the Alps was not an original idea, though an old one 
well appropriated. That idea belonged to Hannibal. His 
retreat from Russia was not as well conducted as the retreat 
of Xcnophon ; it was a bad imitation. His great error was in 
retreating at all. Why attempt impossibilities ? Why demand 
of his heroic army its own immolation ? By adding exposure 
to want, he decimated and almost annihilated his otherwise 
invincible legions. He was surrounded by the resources of a 
great empire, and was not beyond the reach of succor from 
his own, when a little time would have elapsed and the face of 
nature changed. Whatever may be said of his incidental 
errors, this retreat was the capital error of his military career, 
as the sundering of his domestic ties for purposes of ambition 
was his capital political error. Both acts lost him the con- 
fidence of his soldiers and the people, and robbed him of self- 
confidence. All his military prestige vanished, when his army 
beheld him transformed from an invincible hero to a fleeine: 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 31 

fugitive. His own soul forsook him when he turned traitor to 
nature's law and false to his own natural affections, by discard- 
ing Josephine, the good angel, who had been with him in all his 
dreams of glory. But still he was our Alexander, and like him 
is scarcely to be compared to Washington. He is conceived, but 
not born of immortality, being blasted in the womb of time ! 
His greatness is so irregular that it Jails in continuity, and defies 
admiration. His deeds are mighty, but like the pillars of an un- 
finished temple, they are detached and mournful monuments of 
impracticable designs. Tliey look like tlie ruins of Persepolis, 
but as they never constituted a wiiole, we are to consider them 
as the creations of one who was a designer of ruins I 

This irregularity of greatness in the character of Napoleon, is 
being copied by the French nation. To-day they are a nation of 
freemen ; to-morrow they are a nation of slaves. Once they had 
an excess of liberty, now they have none. Tliey alternately rise 
to the heights of civilization, and sink to the depths of barbar- 
ism. They are either governed too much or too little. The 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, the corruption and effeminacy of 
the reign of Louis the 14tli, the revolution of 1798, the epoch 
of Napoleon the 1st, and the coup (Tetat of 1848, constitute the 
great facts of French history, and overshadow all the good gov- 
ernment and march of improvement in the life of tiie nation. 

The possibility of tlie recurrence of such historical enormities, 
such social cataclysms, such political transitions, such religious 
abnegations, is too horrible to contemplate, from which the na- 
tion is only redeemed by the countervailing element of an inde- 
structible, indomitable, though latent spirit of Democracy. 

Tlie accession to power of the present French ruler, proves the 
veneration of the French people for the character of Napoleon, 
without which they might have shown more continuity of free- 
dom, but the existence of that veneration is hostile to the idea of 
freedom. And what are the results of the career of Napoleon ? 
His successor was placed upon the throne of France by the suf- 



32 WASHINGTON ' , 

frages of the combined monarchies of Europe, by which France, 
in effect, lost her sovereignty and self-control. That monarch, 
sustained by foreign bayonets, maintained a precarious show of 
existence and power, (fortunately escaping repeated attempts at 
his assassination until the period of 1848,) when he vanished 
like a spectre from the presence of the majestic ghost of Euro- 
pean revolution. Then came the brief respite oi Libertij, Equal- 
ity and Fraternity^ and France was free and happy as a Repub- 
lic. How brief, how transitory, was her joy ! For lo ! the hide- 
ous phantom of Empire broke her peaceful slumber ; her para- 
disal dream of bliss dissolved and vanished in the delusive moon- 
light haze of military glory, and the miglity soul which took its 
exit from St. Helena had returned and hovered over France. 
Behold the " man of destiny," the proieg-e of ecclesiastical cun- 
ning, the "protector of hofy places ^^ raised to the imperial dig- 
nity by the force of mere military reminiscence, and by a super- 
stitious and farcical assumption of the chimera that the god-like 
soul of a Napoleon could become the inhabitant of that lillipu- 
tian mind. So hath France bartered her liberties for a phantom, 
and obscured the glories of her brightest epoch by this prepos- 
terous substitution of a pigmy for a giant, who hides his littleness 
and deformity behind a cloud of Roman mist to shun the day- 
beams of the star of Washington. 

The present ruler of France has immersed himself in a black 
cloud of moral turpitude of more than Cimmerian darkness, 
which cannot be illumed neither by the evanescent light of erra- 
tic mind, tiie fire of ambition, nor the sickly glare of military 
achievement and glory, (the death-pallor of civilization,) and 
notwithstanding these may, with transient lustre beguile the awe- 
struck nations, like the wandering, vagrant spectre of the skies, 
their light is all too dim to penetrate the unfathomable abyss of 
barbaric gloom into which he plunged when through perjury and 
stratagem he won the goal of his ambition, and by perfidy be- 
trayed the blood-bought suffrages of the French people ; when 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 33 

by usurpation he trampled upon the liberties of his country, by 
violence and aggression suppressed Ronaan freedom ; by cupidity 
exiled the soul and intellect of France, and through cowardice 
shackled the free speech and the free press of a great nation. 
And is lie not even now plying those potent engines of civilization 
against civilization, secretly to supplant freedom and equality, 
that he may establish a Napoleonic dynasty in succession, and 
build upon the ruins of a democratic civilization a consolidation 
of universal and perpetual despotism ? The world knows this 
project, and it will prove an abortion. 

And of what avail to French Monarchists or Imperialists arc 
all their reveries of past, present or future military achievement? 
What though they be environed by the colossal power of confed- 
erated kings. Are not their bastard dynasties secretly spit upon 
by all the legitimists of Europe ? Who are their allies as against 
the peace of the world, and in the extension of their unjust and 
ignoble dominion ? Is Russia tlieir ally since the destruction of 
Moscow, the coup d'etat, or the conspiracy of the Crimea? Is 
England suddenly their ally, after ten centuries of hostility, 
because of the superior integrity of the Imperial successor of the 
victim of St. Helena ? Is Prussia their true ally, with her English 
alliance and religious antagonism ? Is America their ally, while 
they exile freedom from their shores, and wield a shackled press 
to uphold despotism ? Let not the mistaken idea of our former 
friendly alliance with Prance, which was mainly the result of 
her hostility to Great Britain, blind our eyes to the fact of her 
submission to-day to the reign of a usurper, who stamps on free- 
dom with the iron heel of arbitrary power. Let not the admirers 
of the great Napoleon forget that wisdom is superior to genius, 
and if he had been wise, as he was brilliant and brave, our 
alliance might have been perpetual, yet then Napoleon would not 
have been the peer of Washington. But when we contemplate 
the great errors of Napoleon, and perceive in his nation to-day 
a ready submission to usurpation and wrong, for the purpose of 
8 



34 WASHINGTON 

mere grandeur, how shall we admire greatness at the expense of 
justice ; how ally ourselves to tyranny, or view with complacency 
the triumph of violence, perjury and wrong? 

The French nation, following their great copy, are an enigma 
not now fully understood. Their idolatry of him looks like 
devotion to despotism. And if we are to judge from the past 
and consider the character of Napoleon as their model, is it not 
strange that the enlightened and virtuous sovereign of Great 
Britain should assume to unite in cordial companionship with 
so portentious and uncertain a phenomenon ? 

This naturally leads the mind to a contemplation of the past, 
and to the interrogation of the future : 

ENGLAND. 

Where are the empires that adorned the world 
In time's dim vista? Where their haughty kings, 
That ghttered in the bhize of antique glory, 
Whose renown eclipsed the sun of the ideal, 
The eyes of the young world bedimmed with splendor, 
And made romance a fable and a dream ! 
Where are their thrones, and palaces, and walls 
With brazen gates, and towers of fretted gold. 
And where those myriad throngs, that lived and toiled 
To mark the greatness of their cruel kings; 
That blew the trump of fame with foil}- breath 
To ears of fools; that trode the verdant plains 
To feats in arms, and won them fetters. 
And whose deeds, emblazoned on their scrolls of fame, 
Were writ on sand ! Are they gone, 
To make, and grace, and serve some airy court, 
And have they followers too ? 

A throne there is, niethinks, in this our day, 
Of pride, and pomp, and great magnificence, 
Where sits a beauteous queen, and her fair progeny. 
Whose base shall totter in the comintr wind 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 35 

OF OTHERS. 

To the foregoing may be added the names of Aristides, 
Cato, Ciiicinnatus and Socrates, Timoleon, Epaminondas, 
Augustus and Tamerlane, names illustrious in the annals 
of the world, and combining, like Washington, in an eminent 
degree, the united elements of heroism and statesmanship, 
and some of them eminent for their virtue and wisdom, as 
well as their valor and patriotism ; but on account of the age 
or country in which they lived, or their smaller opportunities, 
no one of them, in character and action, in his career and its 
consequences, combined, can be claimed as the peer of Wash- 
ington, Some men, claiming immortality while they lived, 
and endeavoring to extort by cruelty the unwilling homage 
of mankind, became infamous ; others, by the rashness of 
desperation, enkindling enthusiasm, which they mistook for 
idolatry, became vain, and fell victims to austerity and pride; 
others, whose single excellences in some things rested under 
the shadow of a countervailing vice, were rather bad than 
good ; others, in whom virtue and wisdom predominated, 
lavished their goodness on wicked or idolatrous generations, 
by whose ingratitude they were neglected, or by whose 
hostility they became prisoners or exiles. 

Aristides, the Just, was banished his country for ten 
years, by the influence of his rival, Themistocles, and though 
recalled from his banishment in six years, he died in poverty, 
and was buried by charity at Athens. 

Themlstocles was also an exile. 

Socrates, with all his superior wisdom, exemplary virtue 
and heroism, gained, but could not hold, the veneration of his 
fellow-men. The wit, satire and ridicule of an Aristophanes 
proved too much for his influence among his contemporaries. 
He first lost his influence, and then his life, because his 
philosophy sounded beyond the depths of humanity in his 
time. It is doubtful if he would meet a better fate in our 



36 WASHINGTON 

own age and country. But what wit, sopliistry or ridicule 
could loosen the hold that Washington has upon his fellow- 
men ? Genius would wither at the hostile touch of a hair 
of his sacred head ! 

Timolegn's hands are stained with the blood of his own 
brother ! The avenger of his country's wrongs even at the 
sacrifice of a brother's life, because that brother attempted to 
seize power as a usurper by means of a coiq-) d'etat ! He pro- 
tected the rights of the people even by such a sacrifice as this. 
Nature abhors the act, and truth and virtue tremble in the 
presence of such a benefactor. Who ever dreamed of vene- 
rating him, though his deeds were ever so meritorious ? 

Cato, the severe and rigid enemy of luxury, and even of 
refinement ; the representative man of plebeian rudeness, 
manners, customs and habits; the opponent of learning, and 
lover of rudimental simplicity and physical superiority in man, 
even with all his prudence, primitive virtues and just dread of 
the eflieminacy of Grecian refinement, was the victim of aus- 
terity, and therefore, as he was a just man, Virgii elevates him 
to a magistracy in Hell ! 

CiNCiNNATUS, with his sixteen days successful campaign, 
and twenty-one days dictatorship, flashes like a meteor athwart 
the sky of Roman action, and as an actor, eludes the grasp of 
the world's judgment, except in the obscurity of private virtue, 
where, with the million, he is secure from the glory and shame 
of common greatness, and the fickleness of fortune and of 
fame. He has not the advantage of the well tried and 
successful hero, or statesman, and is therefore far remote 
from Washington in the sphere of fame. 

Solomon. It is without arrogance, therefore, that we 
proclaim the truth that Washington is a wiser and a greater 
man than Solomon. The march of civilization and human 
progress have changed the magnific status of the Jewish King. 
The moral brightness of his wisdom, reflected from the Orient, 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. C7 

illumines none of these American States except Utah or 
Deseret, and since Virtue is the oiFspring of Wisbom, she 
now points exultinglj to Washington as her favorite son. 

THE ANNUNCIATION. 

We turn, then, with reverence, to the father of our country, 
as the only model which it is safe to copy, in ancient or modern 
times. Admonished of the fate of the projectors of new theolo- 
gies and new philosophies, how they have ever encountered the 
hostility of bigots, the fury of fanaticism, and the scorn of con- 
ventional egotism, we here defer to the well known and estab- 
lished opinions and convictions of mankind (the spontaneous 
growth of unfettered and unrestrained wisdom) the annuncia- 
tion of the dogma of the Model Man ; and while we claim to 
the behoof of reason the perception and the recognition of this 
standard erected by the divine hand, in view of man's aspira- 
tion to virtue, wisdom and heroism, we discard the vaguest 
conjecture of those prudes in piety, who can see only within 
the circle of their own narrow vision, that we here unqualifiedly 
reserve the act of worship and adoration as due to God alone. 
This MODEL is for man, as man, in this world, and is created 
and established by Providence as a higher physical and moral 
gradation to which mankind must ascend as they rise upward 
to the inheritance of eternal felicity. 

Let us hasten, then, from these glimpses at the Sages and 
Heroes of antiquity, and contemplate briefly the character of 
Washington as 

THE MODEL MAN. 

The use of a model is to fashion others by it. The model 
should be faultless, because any defect in it is not only its own, 
but is impressed upon all that may be fashioned by it. There 
are many departments of industry, mechanism and art, 
wherein models are necessary, and often indispensable, and 



38 WASHINGTON 

if in any piece of mechanism, a flaw, blemish or defect comes, 
from a defect in the model or pattern, such piece of mechanism, 
if adapted at all, in shape or fitness, to the purpose intended, 
will grate harshly, or snap, or retard the motion of the entire 
machine, or cause it sooner to wear out. The model, there- 
fore, is of great consequence, as it affects all that may be 
fashioned after it. 

In the art of chirography also, fur example, if the scholar 
have a defective copy, he will imitate the defects as well as 
the excellences in it, and make slow progress, because he first 
learns the defects, and must then unlearn them, which is the 
most difiicult. But give him an engraved copy, or one written 
by one of those masters of the art, of whom there is but one in 
many millions, and his progress will be more rapid, and he 
will arrive at a higher degree of excellence. 

THE IDEAL AND THE REAL. 

It is said of great artists, those whose productions in 
marble were bought for their weight in gold, that they copied 
from nature those graces and charms which won for them the 
applause of men, and their fame was enduring, while those 
who copied from works of art, or gave inadequate delineations 
of tlie ideal, without due reference to the anatomy or natural 
conformation of grace and beauty, go with tlieir works to 
oblivion. Who cannot tell a fancy sketch from a reality; the 
portraiture of a real man from an ideal one? Reality always 
has some distinctive marks and peculiarities about it, which 
ever elude the grasp of art in the ideal. Why are we often 
struck with certain forms of beauty in nature which surprise 
us? Is it not because they excel the conceptions of imagina- 
tion ? Who has ever painted a real rainbow, or the glowing 
disc of the sun ? Is nature's superiority over art not here well 
understood? Then shall we not interrogate nature, and shall 
we not in nature seek for our model, and finding, copy it ? 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 39 

,^ 

THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE. 

Nature is, indeed, filled with forms of beauty; with glowing 
gems, of divers shapes, and hues, and brilliancy; with painted 
blossoms, of gaudy colors, fairy forms and delightful odors ; 
with forms animate, and of movement or locomotion diverse. 
Look at the insect tribes ! With gilded wings and burnished 
limbs they flutter in the sunbeams ! What various form, and 
motion, and action, in those that swim, and crawl, and travel, 
and fly, and think and reason and imagine ! Millions of pliant 
fins dip the wave ; millions of tiny feet touch the earth ; 
millions of glittering wings flit in air; millions of monads 
listen to the roar of the zephyr, that stuns their tiny ears; 
millions of eyes behold the sun and dissect his rays; millions 
of fairy forms glide over earth and ocean ; millions of angel 
faces are the mirrors of their souls; millions of human imagi- 
nations roam in the enchanted realms of ecstacy. But in all 
nature, amid the rare and the beautiful, the most wonderful 
of all is that rarest microcosm, the model man. 

The reason for this is his complex nature. He is. He lives. 
He moves. He thinks. He reasons. He imagines. He excels. 
He aspires. Of this gradation, from the inanimate to the intel- 
ligent, he is the apex, and head. Man's intellect is the crest 
of the wave that first kisses the sunlight of celestial beauty. 
But the distinctive character of the model man is expressed 
when we say, he excels. His then becomes the difli'iisive 
influence of the wave distilled in air, kissed by the sunlight^ 
transported by the zephyrs, and imbibed by the flowerets of 
earth, becomes the spirit of their odors and perfumes! 

His is not the excellence of mere genius, whereby the 
faculty of imagination, with certain accessories, leads forth 
the soul triumphant into the domain of the ideal. His is not 
the excellence of Reason, which, plodding wingless, in the 
concrete paths of materiality, discards the realm of the ideal 
and the unknown, that domain of hope, whence comes all new 



40 WASHINGTON 

knowledge. He has no excess of wings in bis imagination, 
nor body in bis reason, so be can botb fly and travel with 
facility, being well poised. Hence, witb bis eyes open, be 
can see tbe fitness of wings to an angel, as well as of claw^s 
and teetb to a reptile. He sees tbe utility of tbe ideal as well 
as tbe real, and knows it is not created in vain. His excellence 
is not in tbe force of one faculty at tbe expense of anotber, but 
In all tbe buman faculties in equilibrio. He becomes, tben, 
tbe exponent of bumanity, because be is tbe realization of 
God's idea of a man, and is therefore Tbe Model. • 

Tbis is Washington. And this announcement may well 
startle tbe devotees of ancient theology, tbe worshipers of a 
plurality of gods, for tbis model is a new revelation of tbe will 
of heaven, which will smite to tbe dust tbe idols of their infidel 
theologies, by becoming a standard for mankind, as men, and 
instituting tbe worship of God alone. 

VIOLATIONS OF THE ETERNAL LAW. 

It has ever been the fault of mankind to violate the sacred 
laws of Deity, by endeavoring to break down the barrier which 
hides tbe Infinite from tbe vulgar gaze of mortals. Tbe 
Persians, tbe Chinese, tbe Egyptians, and tbe Romans, all 
claimed to have their sacred Ambassadors at tbe court of 
Heaven, who not only enjoyed tbe honor of celestial inter- 
course, but actually usurped or shared the prerogatives of the 
Eternal. And it is well known that at each successive violation 
of tbe eternal law, there is more than one aspirant to the celes- 
tial ofiice. Tlie sacred barrier once broken down which bounds 
the aspiration of buman ambition and 'r^mau audacity, a mob 
of deities rushes in, and each claiming to be tbe favorite in 
the divine presence, arrogates to itself the powers and exercises 
the prerogatives of Deity. 

The happy idea of a Model Man could not occur to the 
inventors of tbe antique theologies, because their purpose was 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY, 41 

to second, by their efforts, the assumed divine right of kings. 
Thej were their accessories, and as human equality was to 
them an undiscovered truth or a false dogma, their secondary 
deities could not be models for men to copy, for they were 
either the austere and arbitrary dispensers of kingly authority, 
the inimitable performers of miracles, or the sole executors of 
divine decrees. How could they, then, be models, since to 
copy tliem were impossible, and the attempt to do so an act 
of arrogance and irreligion ? 

OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY. 

The sacred dogma of human equality creates the necessity 
for the MODEL man. It is one of the fixed principles of nature, 
that there shall be, somewhere, a supply for every want, and it 
will be found that when a want exists, its supply is not far off. 
So we see, as equality has become the fixed and ruling idea of 
our age, through the agency of the combined wisdom, and 
virtue, and valor of the sages who announced it, there exists, 
simultaneousl}^ with it, a high standard of individual excellence, 
which is a proper model to be copied by men, so that the 
standard of equality shall be high, and not low; so that the 
standard of manhood shall be a standard of virtue and not of 
vice, of wisdom and not of folly. The aspiration of man is to 
this excellence, and this is why we find the name of Washing- 
ton held sacred in our time. This aspiration indicates the 
necessity which the model man supplies, and the consolida- 
tion of the empire of freedom, its stability, its perpetuation, 
its immortality and glory, dictate the principle that its great 
archetype and modehlio deemed as of immortal and celestial 
origin. 

This is not a church canonization, but a philosophical 
identification. It is not the discovery of a great truth, but its 
promulgation. Its discovery took place in the spontaneous 
homage paid to greatness, purity and truth, in the character 



42 WASHINGTON 

of Washington. This is an idea wliieh the church will shun, 
because it is a substitute for canonization, and an improvement 
upon it. Nor is it deification, but the perception of true man- 
hood. To deity, implies the obligation to worship whomsoever 
is deified. But if we recognize but one God, worship is due 
to Him alone. It can be no act of impiety, then, wliile we 
adore the mighty Architect and Ruler of tlie universe, if we 
recognize in his providence this high standard of individual 
excellence, as erected by Him, to lift men to the elevated 
sphere of human equality. 

Equality cannot exist on a low plane. It cannot exist in 
the sphere of vice and ignorance, for there man is ever a prey 
to tyranny. Besides, the very as|iirations of man would disdain 
the iguoble sphere of vice, and cannot dwell therein, while the 
lowly look upward with admiration to the sublime sphere of 
virtue and wisdom, and strive, however humbly, to aspire to it. 
It will be seen, therefore, that there is a necessity for a high 
standard of equality in manhood, because it is adapted to the 
aspiration of all men. A low standard would be unsuitable 
and insufficient, because the aspirations of men would be con- 
tinually rising above it. 

U_ ANALYSIS OF HIS CHARACTER. 

The question naturally arises here, whether the character 
of Washington is so elevated as to become the model. To 
which I answer, that if the ve?ieration of mankind is not 
sufficient evidence of that fact, it will be found in a careful 
analysis of his character. 

He was virtuous without vain glory. 

He was brave without defiance. 

He was wise without pedantry. 

He was grave without austerity. 

He was humble without self-abasement. 

He was religious without superstition or bigotry. 



AND THE HEROES OF ANTIQUITY. 43 

He was earnest without enthusiasm. 

He was sagacious without cunning. 

He was exempt from conventional errors. 

He was munificent without ostentation. 

He was affable without levity. 

He was serious without moroseness. 

He was generous, but just. 

He was exemplary without a fault. 

He was temperate without abstinence. 

He had no vices nor caprices. 

He had opportunity equal to his capacity. 

He had, therefore, passion guided hy reason. 

And energy controlled by judgment. 

He was successful only according to his endeavors. 

He did not perform miracles, nor violate the laws of his 
country. 

He was not a peace man while his country was enslaved, 
nor for war against universal despotism while freedom was in 
its cradle. 

His genius was not pointed nor local, but broad and 
universal. It had little of the flash of poetry about it, by 
which to create worlds out of nothing, but the intuition 
of mathematical precision, by which to create and fashion 
real things from pre-existing materials, u 

Behold the work of his hand ! This free and mighty 
Republic is the best commentary upon the character of 
Washiuffton, for without his moral influence it would have 
been another form of government. By his assent it might 
have been a military despotism, and himself its king. JSTo 
one will deny this who has read history; none will deny to 
him the elements of character we have attributed to him, who 
has read and understood his history, for it constitutes the 
glory of our country's history, tradition, and our common 
fame. Where shall we find his equal ? Not in the long, 



44 WASHINGTON 

dark catalogue of kings. Their history is a record, mainl}-, 
of violence, injustice, wickedness and misfortune; of great 
opportunities lost, for the amelioration and elevation of their 
race ; of the uniform repression of manly aspiration, healthful 
innovation, and useful invention. ISTot amidst the array and 
dazzle and effeminacy of princes, where virtue is often a 
stranger and wisdom seldom known. Not among the moral 
heroes, statesmen, philosophers and representative men whose 
errors and misfortunes we have briefly narrated. The most 
formidable rivals of his fame were, perhaps, among his own 
contemporaries and countrymen, but, even among them, there 
could be but one Washington. 

If the character of Washington is unfit for a model, it is 
not because any have ever equaled him. If such a standard 
is too low, it is not because any one can reasonably hope to 
excel him. There is no danger or probability of his being 
excelled. An equilibrium of the human faculties in man is 
the ultimatum of his being, in this world. It is a condition 
that cannot be improved upon, and Washington approximated 
to that condition. It is the equilibrium of the human faculties 
which the wisdom of antiquity points to, when the lion and 
the lamb shall lie down together, and there shall be none to 
hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain of the mind. The 
best guaranty of the permanence of human freedom is to be 
found in the unapproachable grandeur of his fame. 



7^ ^y^nxn to ^ixBli'tn^ton 



They hold a taper to the sun, 

And boast its glories near his shrine — 
Who claim the palm for victories won, 

Or regal fame, compare with thine ! 

The gild of pride, the pomp of power, 
Like glittering insects, in thy rays. 

Dissolve and vanish in an hour — 

But fame prolongs thy lengthened days. 

Heroes and kings may deck the page 
With storied deeds and trophies bright. 

And laureled bards in phrensy rage, 
Their transient honors to requite, 

But Fame herself adorns thy brow 
With honors time can never fade. 

And truth, eternally, as now. 

Shines forth in thy pure soul arrayed. 

Why doth the sage thy deeds indite. 
And gather trophies round thy tomb ? 

Why weave his glowing chaplet bright, 
To deck that paradise of gloom ? 



46 HYMN TO WASHINGTON. 

What magic spell asserts its sway, 
To kindle in the souls of men 

Blest visions of a brighter day? 

Ah ! all shall meet as brothers then ! 

The golden epoch shall return, 
Peace guide the nations as of yore, 

"When man thy mission shall discern, 
And at the shrine of truth adore. 

Look down, Immortal! from thy car — 
The chariot of the sun restrain ! 

I hear thee whisper, from afar, 

The peaceful age shall come again. ^ 



ERRATUM. 

In thirtieth line, page 5, read : " are found in just equipoise. 



